Re-Inventing The Beehive: Mesa City Officials + Real Estate Developers

Hardly anyone is blowing-the-whistle on this, but fortunes in real estate have been made - and wealth created - for generations of mostly LDS families (and latter-day family trusts) send out in the mid 1800's on missions from Utah by the Prophet Joseph Smith to expand their corner of The Kingdom they called Deseret into Mexico and the Valley of The Sun in what was to be the State of Arizona and Maricopa and Pinal Counties.They first claimed the land and water rights over vast territories along the Rio Salado (Spanish name for The Salt River), expanding the centuries-old canals that supported 80,000 indigenous peoples before the arrival of 'The Pioneers'. . . the region began to thrive. 

In the early 1900's the federal government stepped into the picture by financing to harness hydroelectric energy in the construction of a series of dams from Roosevelt Lake to Mount Stewart here in northeast Mesa. At the same time waters in the canal system fed thousands of acres for an agriculture industry including citrus groves through the post-World War II boom creating a suburban housing demand that sprawled and gobbled-up previous agricultural acreage, delivering fortunes. Housing far from jobs spurred millions if federal, state and taxpayer monies for the construction of freeway and highway infrastructure from the Superstitions on Route 60 running east-to-west driving a commuter-culture and loops of 202 locking in the boundaries for Maricopa County. Real estate holding companies bought up nearly all the land and partnered-up with developers and investors.

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Let's fast-forward to now in the first decade of the 21st century, to see and read some "nice stories" how this wealth-creation rolls out
Blogger Note: Any number of stories published in mainstream media can be adapted to tell the story
Story #1  Sympathy for a Bygone-Era ... but here's the plan
East Valley's last dairy farmers look to develop 860 acres, leave area
This is from October 2017 by Lily Altavena  
"As he looks out at acre after acre of his dairy farm, Jim Boyle Jr. is not wistful at the idea of leaving the land his family has farmed for 40 years. He's hopeful. 

"The East Valley had a large number of dairies, and they’ve all been replaced by development," he said. "Which, you know, is good in a lot of ways, most of those guys were able to sell their land and build bigger dairies."

Boyle Jr.'s dairy is one of five in the neighborhood near southeast Mesa involved in a massive, 860-acre zoning request. . . "   How massive is it?

Their decision hinges on Mesa annexing and zoning the land to increase its value for sale to a developer.

If the dairymen are successful in zoning the primarily-agriculture land to housing, commercial and other uses, it's likely they'll pack up and sell . .

The neighborhood borders Gilbert.

Christened the "inner loop" by those in the planning effort, it's the area near Loop 202 around Elliot and Hawes Road. Much of the land falls within  Maricopa County and will require annexation into Mesa before development could take off. . .

The group of dairy farmers plan to take their zoning application to Mesa later this year, according to Jordan Rose, the attorney representing the farmers. The group wants to work with city officials to refine the plan for approval by the City Council next year. The proposed land-use plan so far includes residential, urban mixed-use, commercial and office space areas. . .

Here's the history-angle to the story: A long history in dairy farming 

Boyle Jr.'s family has been dairy farming in Arizona since the 1880s, and in the Phoenix area since the 1920s. His grandfather milked cows. His father milked cows. In the 1970s, the family's dairy landed in the Mesa area.

It was a popular spot for dairies: Dutch dairy farmers, too, settled in the vast expanse of agricultural land around the same time . . .

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Blogger Note: remember the word "Dutch" --- it's part an even BIGGER STORY involving over 11,000 acres in Pinal County that started off by the City of Mesa selling off lands.

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History continues: ". . . But that was back when farmland was more prevalent than strip malls. In the intervening years, the landscape changed. . ."

Blogger Note: The City of Mesa bought up almost 4,000 acres in what used to the General Motors Proving Grounds to facilitate, among other things two "Community Facilities Districts", Master-Planned gated secluded high-end gated communities named Cadence at Gateway and Eastmark.

". . . Eastmark, one of the nation's top-selling communities, is now right across the freewayfrom the proposed development area. 

The changes haven't been contained to just dairy farming. Citrus farming, too, is waning.

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WANING??? Huh?

Blogger Note: The low acreage-assessments for lands growing citrus and other crops are easily converted into a higher-value assets in transactions handled by "friends-and-family" when purchased and sold for housing, autoplexes, strip malls and shopping centers.

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 "Ever since World War II, with the rapid urban expansion of the city, all of the Valley cities, agriculture has just kind of disappeared, . . ???

According to the article by Lily Altavena, someone in the area around the dairy farm  "is enthusiastic that the dairies may give way to development and so are her neighbors, she said. "At this point, we’re excited for anything," she said. 

Trying to sell the land as it's zoned now would yield little, Boyle Jr. said. 

"Nobody wants the land, there’s not a demand for (agricultural zoning)."

The plan the dairymen are putting together includes single-family homes, commercial, office, and park space. 

District 6 Mesa City Councilmember Kevin Thompson is quoted as saying that he

 "does not want to see hasty planning. He wants the area to grow strategically, with opportunities for businesses to expand, maybe more office space. Big companies have moved in right across the freeway in the Elliot Road Technology Corridor near Signal Butte. Apple has a massive data center. A Niagara bottling facility is under construction down the street. . .

Let’s work together to figure out what’s the best thing to put there and not just put housing up because that’s the easiest way to sell property and make a buck," Thompson said. 

The proposed inner loop development is not in the corridor, but there is talk to extend the area to include the land, a city spokesperson said

The dairymen want a decision by around spring 2018. 

Link >

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2017/10/21/east-valleys-last-dairy-farmers-look-develop-860-acres-leave-area/773188001/
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HERE'S IT IS JUST 3 DAYS AGO > on the back of taxpayers 
Mesa to sink $10 million into Elliot Road expansion for tech corridor

Lily Altavena, The Republic | azcentral.com Published 5:00 a.m. MT April 19, 2018

"The City Council voted on a $10 million contract April 16 with Nesbitt Contracting Company, approving street widening, storm-water harvesting areas, new street lights, landscaping, a new traffic signal and and other aesthetic improvements.

The major infrastructure investment comes as leaders hope the once-deserted stretch of desert will turn into a hub for technology companies.

"I see it a lot like Price Road corridor (in Chandler) or like Silicon Valley, once you build it, the others will come," ???

Kevin Thompson, the Mesa councilman representing the district that includes the tech corridor, said. 

But whether the $10 million in improvements is worth the taxpayer investment remains to be seen. The area is expected to see an influx of data centers over the next few years.

 Will Elliot Road be metro Phoenix's next tech hub? 

William Jabjiniak, Mesa's economic development director, said the push to develop the stretch of Elliot Road into a tech corridor is "all about the jobs." ???

However, it's unclear how many jobs the area will host, as nearly all of the data centers are still in early phases. 

According to this small snippet from AZ Central's reporter, companies that have bought on the Elliot Road tech corridor include: 

• Tech-giant Apple is by far the biggest name on the road. The company confirmed in 2017 that it would invest $2 billion in a "command center" on Elliot and Signal Butte Roads.  
• Niagara Bottling announced a 450,000-square-foot highly-automated bottling facility in the area last year, bringing about 50 jobs to Elliot Road. 
• Digital Realty, formerly Dupont Fabros, bought more than 50 acres of land with plans to develop a data center,  according to the city's economic development office and property records. No specific construction has been announced. 
• Technology company EdgeConnex also recently bought property along the corridor with plans to develop a data center, according to city documents. A spokesman would not say how many jobs the proposed data center would bring.  
• Not to be confused with EdgeConnex, networking company EdgeCore recently broke ground on a 1.25-million-square-foot data center campus, according to the city. The Denver-based company is investing about $150 million into the data center.  

Data centers aren't necessarily regional employment centers, according to Bart Hobjin, an economics professor at Arizona State University. They are often highly automated and need few people to operate. 

But Mesa officials are looking beyond the data centers — to the tech companies that will want to "cluster" around the centers, Jabjiniak said. 

"Often data centers attract other high-tech companies," he said.

That's why the city aims to boost its infrastructure around the area, trumpeting special dark fiber connections useful to companies with high-tech operations.

Jabjiniak also said the big companies behind the data centers will generate a substantial amount of tax revenue.
> Mesa isn't offering tax breaks to companies coming to the corridor, instead focusing on boosting infrastructure.
> The state does, however, offer tax breaks for data centers. 

Hobjin concurs with Mesa's strategy, especially as companies in California relocate to less expensive states, like Arizona. 

"We have the skilled local labor supply," he said. 

Thompson says the roadway improvements will help neighboring communities such as Eastmark, which need the expanded infrastructure to keep up with the pace of development. 

"I’m hopeful that we’ll end up with an employment corridor to go along with that," he said. 

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THE BIG IF : Well, mebbe two

". . . And if the $10 million gamble pays off, the economic benefits could have an effect beyond Mesa, as people from across metro Phoenix gather around job centers. 

"If a zone like this is a success ... this is not only beneficial for the city of Mesa, this is beneficial for the whole metro area," Hobjin said. 

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Link >

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2018/04/19/mesa-sink-10-million-into-elliot-road-expansion-tech-corridor/526291002/